By Carol Altmann

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A5CECD;”] G [/dropcap]rowing up as a dyslexic kid in Rendelsham, South Australia, Casterton artist Collin Tenney spent most of his school years in sheer terror – unless it was art class.

“I would sit there stressed out of my brain that the teacher was going to ask me to read aloud and of course nobody wanted to know the dyslexic kid, but when it came to art class, everyone wanted to sit next to me,” Collin laughs.

In one of those often inexplicable counter-balances, Collin’s limitations with words – which continues to this day – was more than made up for by an artistic streak that emerged when he was just a toddler and began drawing on the walls of his childhood home, “much to the frustration of my poor mother.”

As a young man, art became his solace, his spiritual centre and a crucial way of communicating with the world.

“I ended up working in Queensland and that’s where I started taking lots of painting classes because if I was going to learn about making art, it had to be through tutoring rather than through reading books,” Collin says.

“That was when I was around 23 or 24, but unfortunately after that, life started to get in the way with mortgages and all of those other commitments that move you away from your art.”

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A5CECD;”] T [/dropcap]he pendulum swung back toward the paintbrush when Collin moved to Casterton in 2007, a town that he knew only vaguely but felt a deep connection to after driving through on his return to South Australia after looking at a property in Winchelsea.

It was shortly after the death of his younger sister from breast cancer and Collin was determined to start living the life that he always wanted.

“I felt this incredible connection to Casterton, like I had been there before,” he explains.

As Collin was passing through the historic town (popln 1765), a song played at his sister’s funeral came on the radio and although he burst into tears, he felt it was another gentle push toward making the leap.

It proved to be the right choice.

In the seven years since, Collin has not only returned to painting with a renewed vigour, but has been among several artists driving the small but growing local art scene around Casterton.

Now, for example, there is an Artists of the Valley group that includes Collin and other award-winning artists like painter Julie Kent, printmaker Jenn White and warm glass artist Darryl Tresize (winner of the Drysdale Festival of Glass prize in 2014 and 2015).

Casterton will also see the opening of a new community art gallery – the Gorman Gallery – on April 25 after the building was donated by local real estate agent Peter Gorman.

“There were all of these people out there doing their own thing with art and now we are all supporting and helping each other, while also building an arts community in Casterton,” Collin says.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A5CECD;”] I [/dropcap]n 2012, Collin bought the former CFA shed at nearby Sandford and opened his own studio, the Sandford Red Door Gallery, named for the fire-engine red door that came with the building.

“I love this gallery, I just love the space. It is an incredibly spiritual place for me, where I am doing what I love,” he says, “it is also a place I share with other artists, through classes, galleries and all sorts of functions.”

One of Collin’s great inspirations is the late Margaret Olley, not only for her exceptional art, but her eccentric personality and he has produced several portraits of the artist, including one that took out the 2013 Clarice Beckett Art Award in Casterton (see separate story on the 2015 Clarice Beckett Art Award here). Collin plans to complete a collection of 12 “Olley’s”, as he calls them.

“When I first studied portraiture, I hated it, hated it, hated it and then I did a big work of Margaret Olley and I don’t know, something shifted,” he says.

The Clarice Beckett is one of several art prizes Collin has won in recent years, including the overall prize for the 2015 South-East Art Society’s Open Art Award, held at the Riddoch Gallery in Mt Gambier, for his landscape depicting a typical Casterton scene during the dog trials.

“My subjects keep changing and nobody is ever quite sure what I am going to do next, and sometimes neither am I,” Collin says, laughing.

[box]The Sandford Red Door Gallery is at 6027 Portland-Casterton Rd, Casterton and is open Sundays, but please call (03) 5581 2559 to confirm. You can also find more examples of Collin’s work on the South West ArtAtlas here. Entries for the 2015 Clarice Beckett Art Award close on May 22. You can find full details in our story here.[/box]

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You might also enjoy…

Unearthing literary treasures in a tiny town: Roz Greenwood

Spreading joy through art: Kathryn Weatherly

Revealing the eye of the tiger: Peter Clayfield

Taking a walk on the wild side: Brett Jarrett

Hello subscribers and Bluestone readers,

Thankyou to those people on our newsletter list who provided us with feedback on what you enjoy about Bluestone and the ideas you have for our continued growth.

What we have heard is that you enjoy the sense of community that Bluestone has fostered in the south west in past 18 months, and many of you have subscribed because you don’t want to lose that. Thankyou!

A lot of you have also subscribed because you enjoy our focus on the arts, and people, and stories that highlight the positive aspects of the region.

An equally large group like that we ask the hard questions of those in power and have subscribed to help us continue our analysis and investigations of the local issues that affect our community.

We will continue this balance of stories, but we are also making changes to Bluestone as a result of your feedback.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] M [/dropcap]ore rewards for subscribers:

A large part of the feedback from subscribers is that we give away too many stories for free – and that this deterred people from subscribing.

We think the time is right to password protect more stories, giving early access to subscribers only.

[box]A fresh password will be sent to subscribers monthly via email. (Check your emails for the March password.)[/box]

We have also introduced a free photo service for subscribers. If you would like a free high-res copy of an image taken by Bluestone, simply email us.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] Y [/dropcap]our letters page:

We’ve also decided to create a space for more public debate and from this edition you’ll see a “Your letters” section.

Subscribers and non-subscribers will be welcome to submit letters, short or long (up to 800 words) about any local issue, but publication is at our discretion.

You will have to provide a name and contact details for your letters, but only your name will be published.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] M [/dropcap]ore contributors from the community:

We welcome ideas and contributions from those doing interesting work in the community that they would like to share.

This edition, we have the team behind the Big Life project – Michael Barling and Sean Kenny – writing about how it all works.

If you would like to write a piece for Bluestone, email us with your idea and we can see if it fits with the focus of our magazine: editor@bluestonemagazine.com.au

We hope our subscribers like the direction we are heading and that more readers will make the leap from reading us, to supporting us.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond to our survey.

Louise and Carol, co-editors, Bluestone Magazine.

March 15, 2015

ANALYSIS – Carol Altmann

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”]T [/dropcap]here was a headline just begging to be written a fortnight ago and it would have read something like this: “Cr Ermacora votes with rogue councillors!”

Or maybe it should have been this: “Shock move: Cr Sycopoulis abandons faction!”

Because despite a sense that the Warrnambool City Council is hopelessly divided 4-3 between two opposing factions who can never see eye-to-eye, they do.

And they sometimes agree on the most surprising and controversial of issues, such as in the case of Cr Jacinta Ermacora voting with the supposed “rogue” councillors Peter Sycopoulis, Brian Kelson and Peter Hulin to refuse a permit for a 2km sewerage pipeline to be built by Midfield Meats from its rendering plant to an existing sewer pit.

This was a significant decision in terms of Midfield Meats – one of the most successful and powerful companies in Warrnambool – being able to press ahead with its plans to upgrade the rendering plant which sits in the heart of a sensitive environmental zone because, when it was first approved 40 years ago, nobody cared about such things. They do now.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”]A [/dropcap]n hour later, in the same meeting, Cr Sycopoulis stepped away from his supposed rock-solid faction and voted with Crs Ermacora, Askew, Neoh and Gaston to preserve the controversial Rolf Harris mural at the Lighthouse Theatre.

He didn’t have to, they had the numbers, but he did it because that is what he believed should happen.

In other words, both Crs Ermacora and Sycopoulis voted on principles rather than politics and this is exactly as it should be, and it happens more often than you think, but the dramatics that are also part of the current Warrnambool City Council gain much more attention than these occasions.

And nobody is denying that there is conflict and drama, borne from frustration, ideological differences, wrong-doings (perceived or proven) and lapses in leadership, but this is what happens when seven, very different individuals are elected to represent the many different people that make up our city.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”]W [/dropcap]orking in the media in the past 26 years, I have sat through literally dozens of council meetings in various parts of Australia and watched them transform from stuffy, ultra-formal and dull gatherings made up of mostly businessmen keen to push private interests, into dynamic, diverse forums where not only the councillors are engaged, but the people.

To see the Warrnambool City Council chamber packed for council meetings is a victory for democracy.

And to see our elected officials made up of men and women from different cultural backgrounds, ages, political leanings and occupations is also not only a victory for democracy, but a big beautiful breath of fresh air.

Even if we don’t agree with everything they do or say – should we? – every councillor has to be admired for, as US writer Bréne Brown calls it, stepping into the arena, because that arena is very public, very demanding and, at times, bruising, and that is why most people remain on the sidelines.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”]W [/dropcap]hat I don’t understand is why our robust, vibrant and, yes, occasionally dramatic council is considered dysfunctional?

It is in good financial shape and surely it is far less important that councillors sit down and have a convivial meal at the end of each meeting, than it is for important issues to be dissected, debated and thrashed out in public.

Judging by his recent statements, newly elected MP and former Moyne mayor James Purcell is among those who claim our “dysfunctional” council could stop jobs growth in Warrnambool because it has had the temerity to question the building of an enormous milk processing plant and cold storage facility by Midfield Meats in Merrivale.

Midfield’s plans are passing through due process and the elected councillors are doing exactly as they should: watching that process unfold while also listening to the hundreds of people in and around Merrivale who have concerns about the single greatest change to their neighbourhood in decades.

Leaving aside for one moment the handful of jobs that will actually be created by this expansion, surely a council is not elected to be a mere rubber stamp for developments and developers?

If so, they should be more rightly described as corporations, not councils.

The day our councillors start to fall silent on the significant issues within our city is when we really need to begin to worry, not when they are making too much noise.

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 You can find more analysis here…

Sovereign Hill strikes gold as “Flaggy” struggles

Harris mural a lost opportunity to take a stand

Behind the spin, W’bool business is losing heart

The changing landscape under Midfield Meats

By Carol Altmann

A child’s boot found during renovations of one of Warrnambool’s oldest commercial buildings has unearthed the remarkable story of a local war hero.

Bluestone Magazine wrote about the shoe being found under the floorboards of 220-222 Timor St in one of our very first editions, way back in November 2013, when we reported on the restoration of the 160-year-old building by owners Luke and Natalie Taylor.

At that time, it was known that one half of the two-storey building had been rented during the 1930s by a bootmaker – a Mr Long – but whether the shoe was connected to him, or any more details about this Mr Long, proved elusive.

Enter Rodney Harris, who recently stumbled across our story and called Bluestone to say that he believed his friend, Helen Thomson, a well-known face in Swinton’s homewares department for many years, could fill in all the gaps.

And she could.

Helen, now aged in her eighties, is the daughter of the late Pearl Long whose father, Robert Long, started the original bootmaker’s business at 220 Timor St early in the 1900s.

In one of those priceless moments that history buffs live for, Helen produced a photograph – the only known copy in existence – of her grandfather standing outside the shop in March 1919.

As was common for the time, the extended Long family all lived upstairs from the business and Helen believes the English-style boot may have belonged to one of Robert’s six children (another three children had died).

“I know Mum used to talk about these little English boots that her father would buy for them for school, because they were good quality,” Helen says.

“But Mum hated wearing them, because of course they were not like what the others kids wore,” she adds.

Helen went on to explain how her grandfather’s bootmaking business was later taken over by her uncle, Roy Long, who everybody knew as “Toy”, and this is where the story took an unexpected and remarkable turn.

When war broke out in 1939, Toy Long left his bootmaking business and joined the AIF as part of the 2/21 Battalion (known as Gull Force) that became prisoners of war on Ambon, Indonesia, following the Japanese invasion of the island in 1942.

Toy, together with other members of his batallion also from Warrnambool, was imprisoned for almost four years in appalling conditions.

During this time, it has now been revealed, Toy risked his life by hiding documents given to him by his commanding officer that would prove crucial in the later trials for war crimes.

Helen has a precious copy of the letter written to Toy by his commanding officer, W.R Scott, after the war.

It reads, in part:

“My Dear Long,

The time has now arrived when we are no longer POWs…in Japanese hands. I may therefore without risk of your being deprived of your life, write and thankyou for the way and the risks of death you knowingly and yet willingly took secreting most important documents, holding them in your care for a long period of time, during which, I may add, there were two searches carried out by Japanese troops…

“You took all the risks, knew it meant death for you if you were discovered, and I now thankyou on behalf of us for the gallant manner in which you completed the task. I wish you all the best of luck for the future.”

After returning from the war, Toy lived with Helen and her parents, and other members of the extended family, in their house in Kruger St.

“My mother was cleaning up one day and found this letter and started to read it, but Toy snatched it out of her hand. He didn’t want anybody to know about it,” Helen says.

Years later, however, one of Helen’s aunts had possession of the letter and typed out a copy for Helen. The original is now in the Canberra National War Memorial.

“He (Toy) never talked about the war, but he had the most horrendous nightmares, yelling out in his sleep,” Helen recalls.

Toy resumed his trade as a bootmaker after the war, opening a shop in the former Market Arcade in Lava St (and, later, opposite the Regal Shoppe in Timor St), and despite his horrific experiences – or perhaps because of them – he embraced life to the full.

“He was always such a kind and generous man and always had something for us kids when he came home from work, sweets or glass beads or something like that,” Helen says, laughing.

Toy later married and had one stepson. He died in 1990.

A humble shoe retrieved from the rubble has revealed the story of a brave and humble man.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 16px; color: #00000;”]Milk processing plant location needs forward thinking:[/dropcap]
 

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A5CECD;”] I [/dropcap] live only 400 meters from the proposed milk drying plant and proposed freezer storage facility behind Midfield Meats, which if developed will be the largest of its kind in the southern hemisphere.

I have received an offer from a local real estate agency stating that my house would be devalued due to the proposed development and they had a buyer who’d be interested in purchasing my house to support the workers at the plant.

Warrnambool needs entrepreneurial businessmen like Colin McKenna, owner of Midfields Meats and the rendering plant. They provide investment and employment which contribute to the growth and development of this wonderful city.

Objections to the current proposals generally support the development of these industries in Warrnambool, but argue that the current site is too close to residential zones and therefore these new plants should be sited elsewhere.

The expansion of inappropriately sited industries and the proposed introduction of heavy industry so close to residential zones, will negatively impact on the health and wellbeing of residents and should not be considered – a disaster in the making.

There needs to be a buffer zone, away from any residential areas and away from our pristine coastline. When Midfield Meats and the rendering plant were developed, they were out of town.

But things have changed, the city has grown and will continue to grow into the future. Warrnambool is a great city with many areas of natural beauty and such industrialisation so close to the city and the coastline is out of step and totally inappropriate.

Midfield Meats is less than 3k to the Warrnambool city centre Post Office and even less to the Merri River and the ocean. The rendering plant is right ‘on’ the ocean and ‘in’ Kelly’s Swamp – ridiculous.

The three industries of Midfield Meats, the milk processing plant and the rendering plant need to be placed out of town and on one large industrial site. They could be constructed using environmental best practice principals and become an industry leader for the 21^st century.

Here is an opportunity to demonstrate a forward thinking vision, to create an industry model for the future, able to expand to meet the growing demands of domestic and international trade in the 21^st century. Financial assistance could be sought from Federal, State and local Government and the new international investors in our dairy industry.

The issue here is about industrial development that is in sympathy with the development of healthy communities.

When turning into McMeekin Road from Koroit Street, the city side is to the left and the light industrial estate is to the right. Midfield Meats currently sits on the city side and with the push for further expansion, perhaps it is time to draw a line in the sand and have the city side rezoned as residential and small business. All industry to the left or further out as appropriate and the Warrnambool City Council develop a new “heavy” industrial site.

Bowing to forceful economic proposals is not the way forward.

Selling and rezoning land and making promises without proper community consultation is not sympathetic to the needs of either the community or the environment. It is imperative that Council, politicians and local entrepreneurs be visionaries, build for the future and listen and respond to community concerns.

Francis van der Mark, Warrnambool

[box]Please send your letters to editor@bluestonemagazine.com.au with a contact name and number that can be used for verification. All letters are published at the editor’s discretion and will include the author’s name. [/box]